“aoi has joined your part—No, fuck that.

Hi, I’m Aoi. Some may already know me from the comments section, but for those who don’t go to the comments(pfft), hello.

The problem with the scanlation scene is that many groups are too scared to touch a series when another group is already doing it, even though their releases are fucking shit. I thought, “Maybe if they were told of their mistakes, they might become better. Or a better group will actually man up and do it, only (slightly) better.”

How do we make more people rage improve the quality of scanlations?

With that, I thought Crymore as the perfect place for scanlators to come and rage see their own or other’s mistakes. So when Dark_Sage posted the Crymore Feedback post, I thought I’d request something that a few people have been asking for(including myself): Scanlation Reviews.

This image is cute. I’m reusing it.

But instead of requesting for it, I decided since I’ve actually worked as a scanlator before, and Dark_Sage is a terrible procrastinator, I’d just offer myself as tribute a writer instead. So here we are. I’ll be reviewing scanlations from now on.

But what will you review, Aoi?

Good question. For the first review I might go with a random manga (that’s still relevant, I promise), and for the following ones whatever the comments suggest/ask for. If there are no suggestions (sadface), I’ll just review more random ones.

Review Format

The review will judge four parts of the scanlation: Translation, (English)Grammar, Typesetting, and Quality. The final score will not be an average, instead it will be an “overall” score. Readability ratings will also be included. Because a single manga chapter is usually too short(17/18 pages), I may review more than one chapter in a single review. Of course, manga with long chapters are exempted.

Just because.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks to D_S for giving me an opportunity, and I’ll make sure I won’t disappoint too much.

May I suggest the Bleach manga as a good early post? To the best of my knowledge, there are two major groups doing it at the moment, and there is a significant quality gap between them, so it would make an effective showcase of your reviewing style (and since Bleach is pretty popular, it would help a fair few people make a more informed choice).

Oooh, this’ll be interesting. As for suggestions, anything that big groups like RHS or VI are doing would be nice. And if you want to sit through them, you could always try doing Naruto/Bleach/One Piece etc.

Seriously not trying to offend here, but are you sure you can speak to the quality of the English in a release when there are grammatical errors both in your comments and introductory post? Not to mention the way you write is noticeably stilted.

Enough. Manga translation difficulty is quite low compared to Anime, because you have text. It’s more about how the dialogue/speech bubble is translated and whether or not it’s suited for the character/situation.

Translation difficulty depends entirely on the manga in question, although having the text does help.
While you generally know what’s written, you may not understand the grammar, mistake the meaning of a word or get kicked in the balls by slang.

It’s just that if a people in a given geographical area invent a language over the course of a few thousand years, their way of doing things in it carries more of an imprimatur of Correctness than any bastardisation of it by someone else. (Note: you would likely use ‘bastardization’ rather than ‘bastardisation’, making you wrong and me right, again. And really, when it comes to things relating to Bastards, I am the Subject Matter Expert.)

That spot’s reserved for MangaStream – because not only is everything I read from them bad, they also slap watermarks on it. Willfull destruction is Hadena style. :p
MangaPanda can be SubDESU, though. I guess that would make FrankyHouse Ayako…

Well good luck with that. Scanlation groups aren’t exactly the type to change, especially the bigger groups, which is why I consider comparisons much more valuable than straight-up reviews. That way readers learn they have choices, instead of being forced to eat the same shit. Of course, there’s hardly any real competition in scanlation so there’s not much content or tears to be had there.

Hopefully the despair you experience from your first couple reviews doesn’t make you want to off yourself :)

Like Aoi said, there’s kind of a stigma associated with picking up a series another group is already doing, regardless of whether or not their work is shit; plus, if you start doing it, they accuse you of “stealing their beloved project”, as if they can somehow claim to own that series. Not only that, leechers will always end up defending them, even if you point out their mistakes (hey, sounds like fansubbing). They don’t seem to understand that competition fosters quality (or well, that’s how it’s supposed to be).

Though to be fair, I don’t think the big scanlation groups are any worse than the big fansub groups. C averages all around?

I meant change as in taking criticism. Probably because they’re used to the praise their leechers heap on them, yes, but they still take it like little girls. I used to comment about little things on release posts, and the next day my comment would mysteriously vanish. And that’s on the lower end of reactions.

C-average for English? Maybe. More like D-average for translations though (of the ones I know of; not that I know who the big groups are anymore).